Dreams - Artful Days April Goodie Box

Hi there everyone,
I'm back tonight with a couple of projects that I have really enjoyed making, using last month's wonderful items from the April Goodie Box. The theme for April is: Dreams. It's certainly well named. The products are very 'dreamy'. I'm absolutely in love with the stencil that Julie Bell included in this selection. It is so versatile! As you will see. Here's the first project: A 7" X 5" canvas.

For the canvas I was inspired by the beautiful papers included in this month's selection. These are the new Prima Rose Quartz papers and journaling papers. The colours are mainly greys and pinks so those were the colours I wanted to play around with. I also wanted to use the new Ranger Distress Oxides to create a splattered background. After a bit of experimentation I ended up with a mix of Worn Lipstick in the oxides and Pumice Stone and Black Soot in the original Distress inks. They do blend beautifully and I was really pleased with the outcomes. I think I managed to re-create the colours in the papers quite well. What do you think? 

Before making the background on the canvas, I used the same technique on a 7" X 5" piece of Mixed Media card from Inkylicious. These take a lot of wet media without buckling. It was certainly easier to swoosh the card through the inks (that were smeared on the work mat first before a light spraying of water/TH method) than it was to swoosh the canvas that obviously has no 'give'. But somehow, it worked first time and I was really pleased with the result. 

So, first up: the Worn Lipstick Oxide, swooshed two or three times and dried between. I'm getting the hang of these now! 

Now I added the Distress ink: Pumice Stone on top of the Oxide, again drying in between. This drying helps to keep the background clean, and look!!! White space! Me? Wow. 

And just a very gentle touch of Black Soot Distress Ink. I really love this background and this blend of colours. Now to play with that fabulous feather stencil! 

Gosh, I had fun with this. I decided to use PaperArtsy Infusions: 'Are You Cerise' and Black Knight' and mixed them carefully with a dab of Golden's Heavy Matte Gel. I then pushed these blends through the stencil and left them to dry. I made several of these as I loved the results. I'm sure I can make some cards and tags with these. The ones I wanted to use for this canvas, however, were those I stencilled onto the mixed media card background. I did one of each colour as I hadn't yet made up my mind which I would use for the canvas. I secretly wanted to use the pink feather but in the end the dark grey one was the better fit for this project. Never mind, I had another plan for the pink one! 

It's interesting to note (and has already been said by my lovely chum, Lesley Ebdon) that by mixing the Infusions in with the gel, you tend to lose the lovely 'walnut' crystals, but you do get a beautiful, vibrant colour instead. I was happy with that. 

Next, I coloured a couple of the embellishments that I would use when I assembled all the different bits. I adore the Scrapiniec words that Julie nearly always includes in each month's goodie box and the resin feathers are gorgeous. You get four of these! 

I cut down the Mixed Media card to create two tags with each of the stencilled feathers. I added some complementary ribbon and inked the edges. Luckily, I had a stamp set by Visible Image that had some cute feather stamps on, so I stamped around the tag with a second stamping of Pumice Stone. Now it was time to assemble everything, ink all edges and prepare to layer. I used a couple of the gorgeous papers for layering. 

And yes, that little bottle of Ranger a matte medium is included in this month's box. Julie thinks of everything. Definitely useful for gluing these layers down. The feather is one of many included this month, in the deepest burgundy and also in pure white. They are absolutely delicious! The ric-rac is from my stash. 

With the addition of a couple of the gorgeous Mulberry flowers and a couple of the cabochons, plus some Rangers Crystal stickles to add a bit of sparkle, it was finished! And I love it. But what happened to the pink stencilled feather? This...

You can see now just how useful that stencil is. A close up to finish I hope you've enjoyed this post. I really enjoyed creating these projects. If you are tempted by these goodies, you'll find more inspiration and details how you can buy yours, here. Until next time! Happy crafting one and all!